The Dangers
by CarlileLovesAnime
Summary: It's been 25 years since Tsuna became the tenth Vongola boss, and now he lives with a wife and three children in a life of apparent peace and virtue. But what happens when his kids and their friends discover they have an awesome, life-changing disease?
1. New Year's

**Good afternoon, pineapples. This is Carlile speaking. **

**So I've been chipping away at this idea, here, for about a month or two short of the entire time I've been obsessing over Katekyo Hitman Reborn! Yeah. A long time. Yes, this is a next-gen, but no, this is not an ordinary next-gen (not to sound self-promoting or anything. But seriously.) Okay, okay, I know I'm supposed to be updating my already-liked fics like "Whirlwing" and "Of the Nameless" and "Souldier", not to mention the fics I've written for other fandoms. And for that, I am truly sorry. But this story is poisoning my mind and I really need to get it out there. **

**Hopefully, you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed developing and writing it. I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn! or anything related to it. All I own are the OCs I created and injected into the story to F with your minds. Oh, yeah, and my cat.**

_**Title of Fanfic**__**: The Dangers  
**__**Fandom**__**: Katekyo Hitman Reborn!  
**__**Genre**__**: Family, Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Romance, Humor, Drama, Adventure, Angst, Crime, Tragedy, Suspense YOU KNOW WHAT JUST GENERAL!  
**__**Warnings**__**: Contains crack pairings, canon pairings, AU-ness, OOC-ness, OCs, violence, raping of the mind, adult language, sexual dialogue, drug references and use, alcohol references and use, impossible situations, death, life, things that make you rofl, things that make you cry, things that make you erupt into a mad frenzy of fangirling and above all… awesomeness. Or, at least that's what I think. I'm pretty proud of this piece of crap fanfic. :D  
**__**Rating**__**: T (DSLFV)**_

_Chapter One: New Year's_

0o.o0o.o0

_Tick. Tick. Tick._

"If this place is so special, then why are you paying us to move here?" Xanxus' voice was deep and mistrustful. "You've praised Luciano so much. We should be chomping at the bit just to vacation here, yet before us on the table there are millions of dollars."

_Tick. Tick. Tick._

"It _is_ a nice place," Leviathan said.

_Tick. Tick. Tick._

"Well, it's not just living here, you see," said a man with vivid green eyes and hair that blended in perfectly with the thick darkness. "As close attention as we pay, we can't totally protect them from anything that may come up because of our business. So we're paying you for bodyguard duty, basically. Your purpose would be assurance of their safety, which is more important to us than anything. Living here is the perk. Besides, Phoenix would probably appreciate it."

_Tick. Tick. Tick._

"This would be ideal for Phoenix. She'd be happy, too." Belphegor turned his head in the direction of his boss.

_Tick. Tick. Tick._

That disappointment on my wrist just kept going. It was ridiculing me, taunting me, beating me down. Such a wretched silver and gold thing. It pulled me into its hell and away from what should have mattered most.

A sigh came from the other side of the table. "Sounds reasonable enough," Xanxus said. He reached forward and pawed the suitcase toward him, and he and Superbi Squalo began to rifle through the cash inside.

"So you say it's a deal: we open up some homes, family comes too, Phoenix gets friends his own age and your lives are enriched beyond anything you can fathom, in exchange for keeping an eye on those precious ones, for pay," the tallest man on my side said affirmatively.

At that, everything seemed to pause. The dim lights cast their exposing shadows down on us. A surge of tension crashed over us, then dissolved into the air. The only sound that could be heard was the purr of the paper money as Xanxus and the guest next to him counted it out. That and, for me, the ticking, ticking, incessant ticking of my wristwatch. Sure, we were frozen, but time wasn't.

Every single tick meant that another shred of my sanity snapped. The walls around me suddenly felt like they were closing in and everything was shrinking and clinging closer. Colors started to change. A ringing sound formed in my ears. I licked my lips and a craving for something dangerous claimed my tongue. The ticking got louder, louder, _louder_. It hammered at my brain. My breathing grew fast and light. A cold sweat washed over me. And all this, this crazed and inappropriate reaction, raised a single question which quickly corrupted my entire mind, soul and body. Of all there was, all that mattered, everything…

_This_ was the most important?

"Seems like everything's fair and in order," Xanxus concluded. "Speaking on behalf my party, I hereby accept your terms." The scarred man's announcement received approval from the rest of the Varia: Leviathan, Belphegor, Fran, Squalo and Lussuria, shown as simultaneous nods. This is all I knew of before I faded out.

Deep breath, calm down, back up. My thoughts strayed far, far away from this place, to the origins.

"_My name is Tsunayoshi Sawada. I am 41 years old, and I am the tenth generation boss of the greatest crime family in the world, the Vongola. I am joined by my loyal and trusted Guardians: Hayato Gokudera, Ryohei Sasagawa, Lambo Bovino, Takeshi Yamamoto, Mukuro Rokudo and Kyoya Hibari. I also have my Outside Advisor here, Basil Sinclair. We are currently meeting with the notorious assassin squad connected to the Vongola Family, the Varia. We have a long history with the Varia and it hasn't exactly been stable, but apparently, we need them right now."_

For what seemed like the first time, I looked down at my watch. This immediately put everything back in place. God, did it.

It was midnight.

An impulse of the most unbecoming kind bolted up my body and lifted me subconsciously out of my chair. I became a solid and stubborn tree. The chair fell out of the way, and I slammed my branch-fists onto the table. Every eye in the room was on me now, widened in shock.

The bark of my circumstance at that very second peeled away in bits and pieces as I analyzed what I had just interrupted. A stack of papers had been given to the Varia members, and they were passing it up and down amongst each other to sign. Right now, Leviathan had it. His hand quivered as it gripped the pen.

And finally I spoke. It was an outburst of voice that just came out of me unexpectedly, but I meant it so much, the little butterflies in my stomach burst out of their hiding places and caused one of the biggest uproars I ever felt.

"What the hell are we doing?"

My Guardians and Outside Advisor stirred.

"We should be in our homes right now, kissing our wives, hugging our kids, drinking and eating to our hearts' content! Not stuck in a dark meeting room discussing 'protection'! It's midnight on New Year's, for Christ's sake!"

Silence fell. Thick, guilty silence. Sweet silence.

0o.o0o.o0

13 hands holding 13 glasses punched the air. The liquid inside each of them sloshed a bit from the motion.

With my own drink held high above my head, I sat up arrow-straight, closed my eyes and took a long and deep breath. "To anything, everything and nothing," I exclaimed.

Everyone pushed their glasses towards mine. "Yes!"

And then the glasses lowered and poured the intoxicating nectar into our mouths.

A funny thing happens when you drink alcohol in excess. You slip into it, a state of warmth and delirium. Nothing makes sense, but you like it, and for a while everything that matters just disappears into numbness. All you can think is that you want more, and once that 'more' finally becomes too much, you come down from the careless high. The pain and repercussions hit you like a ton of bricks. Only when your body and mind crawl up from the lowliness of the pain of 'too much' do you realize that all you're doing is running away from the original issue. Then you have two choices: either keep running until you exhaust yourself, or emerge from the fog and face what's going on.

For those reasons, I usually avoided drinking. Tonight was different. Tonight my feelings came out and pushed me into a paradox I had dug myself so deep into, the honest question of what the hell I was thinking in the first place's gnawing could only be stopped by a giant dose of liquid forgetfulness. At least for now.

I held my glass tight against my chest. I could feel my drink flowing through my body like a great big tidal wave. Shudders fell down my skin. When all the glass's contents found its way inside me, I got it filled back up again. Again and again. Beautiful confusion clouded my brain and made my eyes red. Sweat trickled down the back of my neck. This was so much more glorious and glamorous than what I was occupied with before.

Hiding at the bottom of a glass of beer, I knew, wouldn't actually help anything. But it felt so good to drown like that, I was not able to stop myself.

Around three in the morning, a familiar ghost took me home. He smelled like cigarettes and talked to me in an agreeable manner. The ghost was my best friend. Of course, I was so confused I didn't realize that until the next morning.

0o.o0o.o0

**A/N: The 'ghost' is Gokudera. And no, he's not dead. I just used ghost as another term for a person. Wanted to clarify! **


	2. Dawn

**I suppose that, since you're here, you want to keep reading this fic? … You're very brave. **

**I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn! or anything related. All I own is this fanfic, the OCs in it, and my cat. Enjoy!**

_Chapter Two: Dawn_

0o.o0o.o0

God, she was so pretty. Just like her mother. Her strawberry-blonde hair rained down like strands of pure gold over my face, and my eyes met her caramel-colored eyes. Sunlight seeped through the sheer curtains over the window near the back of my bedroom, and she seemed to glow.

"Daddy?" she said. Funny, she was almost 16 and still called me 'Daddy'. "Daddy, are you awake?"

I stirred. "Ngh." Her voice was so loud, the light was so bright, the air stung…oh, a hangover. Rare as they were for me, they hurt all the same.

My daughter smiled when the color returned to my face and she heard me bid her good morning. Then she giggled. "Mom said you were so drunk last night, Mr. Gokudera had to bring you home."

I felt ashamed. For my only daughter to hear of my hopeless intoxication…. The poor girl. At that point, I just hoped intensely that she didn't think less of me.

"Sorry about that," I said. I could smell the alcohol on my own breath. She could, too, and her nose wrinkled a little, but she still smiled her dear mother's smile.

After a short while she stood up straight to help me out of bed. Vertigo crashed onto me, and I felt blind and deaf and close to dying. I descended the stairs and walked into the kitchen, nearly falling flat on my face at least once.

My sons were at the breakfast nook, eating and arguing over something at the same time, and my wife stood in front of the stove, busy cooking.

Elda, my only girl and oldest of my three children, kept her gentle fingers entwined with mine. She was like the perfect and prettiest combination of her mother and my mother. She was so innocent-looking and kind. I was lucky to have her; she was a blessing in and of herself.

Of course, to bear me such a wonderful girl was my wonderful wife, Kyoko. She and I would have our 18th wedding anniversary this year. She had strawberry-blonde hair with a lot of red in it and honey-colored eyes. Kyoko worked as a dance choreographer, but since we were one of the only families in the neighborhood without maids, cooks, butlers or any other staff, she also had to do housework. This I regretted. She understood and agreed with me, though, that having servants and whatnot just didn't feel right. Plus I helped her out a lot anyway.

Our two bickering sons were Vittore and Innocenzo. Innocenzo, 10, was a chip off the old block. He had my same unruly brown hair, brown eyes, short stature, and, sadly, the same low self-esteem I had at that age. Vittore was 12 and looked remarkably like my father, with platinum-blonde hair and dark eyes. The boys had rather different personalities, and it showed. But I still cherished both of them as much as I did the women in my life.

So, this was the Sawada family: Tsunayoshi, Kyoko, Elda, Vittore and Innocenzo.

Kyoko could sense my presence without even looking. "Hungry, Tsu-kun?" Her voice had undertones of something I couldn't quite make out… rage? Disappointment? I feared the worst.

Elda let go of my hand and joined her brothers at the table.

"Um…" was all I could say.

My wife turned and looked at me with some kind of a smug expression. "You feeling okay?" she said. "You really tied one on last night. You were mumbling things in your sleep. Things I'd rather not say here." She gestured at the couch in the adjacent room—the one with the blankets and pillows on it.

Sure, Kyoko was the sweetest wife as could be, but when it came right down to it, she could make me feel shame like nobody's business. And like how it was for many spouses, sleeping on the couch was a trump card of the most destructive sorts.

Damn. I was in trouble.

She approached me, spatula in hand. In my hangover haze I couldn't really predict what she was going to do until she got right in my face and smiled big at me while poking me in the stomach with the spatula at the same time. It wasn't hard, but all the emotion behind it nearly made me double over. I could hear all three kids laughing at me in the background.

Then she whispered to me, "Did you land the Varia account?" Oh, yeah. My wife and most of my friends knew I was the Vongola boss. In front of the kids, however, I was a business executive, not a mobster.

It took me a second to remember that, though. I just put on a dopey grin and said, "Yeah!" Lord knew I was lying. Not only was I really not an exec, but I also didn't get anywhere with the Varia last night. One phone call could set the latter right, though, and frankly, I would have much rather had our children thinking that I was in an honest business.

Living a lie was much easier when the people you loved believed in it.

0o.o0o.o0

Hayato Gokudera and I had been best friends since our first year of middle school. He had silver hair, pale skin, and gray-green eyes, and for the past 14 years we had lived next door to each other, in two separate mansions within the same castle walls. The man was incredibly intelligent—prophetic, ingenious, you get the idea—as well as calm, trustworthy, reasonable, and fairly easygoing. (Maybe he was so calm because he smoked and it helped calm his nerves?) He was my right-hand man in the Vongola Crime Organization. He was also the only sober one at the bar last night, and the one who brought me home.

But I swore, sometimes Hayato knew me better than my own wife, kids, or even I did. We were as close as two men could possibly be without being family or gay for each other, as Hayato's wife put it once.

So, after I ate and cleaned myself up, I went over to the Gokudera house for a visit, to thank the man I was so close to.

I came over around noon. Their family maid, Gloria, answered the door and told me they were still sleeping in, but that she would wake them just for me.

She ran upstairs to get Hayato out of bed while I stepped inside the house and sat down in the parlor next to the foyer. They had a really great view of Vongola Square from that front room. Vongola Square was a beautiful garden at the front of Vongola Castle and could be viewed and accessed directly from our houses. It was actually my favorite place in all of Vongola Castle, even surpassing my own house. For a little while, I sat there in peace and quiet.

"Hello, Mr. Sawada," called a quiet voice.

I immediately whipped my head around to the source. Hayato's daughter peeked in from the other side of the doorway.

"Oh," I sighed. She had made me jump. "Hey, Sabrina."

Sabrina Gokudera was definitely a very beautiful girl. She had olive skin, like her mother, and her father's silvery-white hair. She was 13—almost 14, actually—and quick-witted and graceful. And she had pretty brown eyes. It was unfortunate she couldn't use them.

"I'm glad you came," she said, and she walked in confidently and sat in the chair next to mine. Sabrina didn't face me at all when she spoke. "I've been the only one awake for hours. My parents are up in their room, and they've been awake for a while but haven't come out yet—I think they're watching a movie or something. And my brother is still sleeping like a rock. It sucks being a light sleeper and hearing _absolutely everything_, you know?"

I couldn't help but smile, even though she would never be able to tell. "Actually, I wouldn't know. But I suppose superior hearing is your price to pay for being blind."

Yes, Sabrina Gokudera was blind. She had been completely sightless her entire life. It wasn't a problem with her eyes, though, necessarily—in fact, she looked completely normal from the outside—it was just that there was a major problem with part of her brain, the part that dealt with sight.

She just laughed.

"Anyway, what else is up?" I asked.

"The ceiling."

"Other than that, I mean."

"Oh, nothing, really," she said.

"Hey."

"Hi, Dad," Sabrina said, her empty gaze never straying from downward.

I looked toward the doorway to see Hayato walking in. "Good mor—er, well, good afternoon, I guess."

My best friend came up behind his daughter and set his hand on her back. "Why don't you go get Gloria to make you something to eat, 'kay, Brina? I know she just arrived not too long ago."

She perked up a little. "Okay, Dad." And she left, her father silently watching her every move until she was out of sight. Then he sat down.

"I just wanted to thank you for last night," I said. "Did I behave too badly?"

He leaned back. "Well, ah, let's see…"

"Never mind."

Hayato chuckled. "It wasn't a problem at all, Juudaime." I thought it almost funny how he still called me 'Juudaime', even after all these years, after all we had been through, and not by my actual name.

If she hadn't become a doctor, I'm sure Hayato's wife, Luana, would have made a great supermodel. I watched her flowing down the staircase in the next room. Hayato watched her, too. I found it so curious that even when she was apparently just coming out of bed, she still had on her trademark bright red lipstick. The color complimented her appearance – olive skin, curly brown hair, brown eyes – better than it would for most women. She had a classic, graceful, timeless beauty, like a Disney Princess. Cinderella, Snow White, Aurora, Luana.

"So… um…" I said after the pause, "Do you think we should go talk with the Varia, see if we can get them to schedule another meeting with us?"

He cocked his head dismissively. "Nah. Let's wait 'til tomorrow. I get the feeling you're not the only one with a hangover this morning."

I nodded and looked out the big front window at Vongola Square. There was lots of activity there this morning. I-Pin Bovino, Lambo's wife, was sitting on a bench reading a book, while her daughter snooped around in the flowerbeds and her son stood at an easel in front of the fountain. Ryohei Sasagawa, who seemed to have worked off the hangover he would have gotten from last night's incident, jogged into the Square, jogged a circle around the outer edge and jogged through the gate and out of the Castle.

Ah…

Happy New Year.

0o.o0o.o0 _**And now for some third person POV…**_ 0o.o0o.o0

Enrico Hibari sat in complete silence on a bamboo mat on the floor, his legs crossed, his back straight, his eyes shut. There was a certain, natural peace in the sunroom that Enrico couldn't find anywhere else. The sunlight that radiated from the glass ceiling seemed therapeutic, and any sound made was muffled up by the multitude of plants, and a calming, sweet scent clung to the air. The chatter of three hidden golden canaries filled the room with music.

Enrico's father stepped inside with two cups and a steaming kettle. He knelt down in front of the boy, set a cup down, poured tea into it. Then he sat down behind Enrico, back to back, and poured himself some of the tea.

And then there was silence. The two men didn't say a word, or even touch. But they breathed together as one, and were shined upon by the same rays of sun, and the weight of the world on their shoulders… for a moment, there was none.

"You're late," Enrico said. His voice was blatant in the quiet room.

Kyoya Hibari opened one eye. "So? I'm here anyway."

Kyoya and his son were so much alike. They both had jet black hair, tall, lean bodies, serious faces and squinty eyes. In fact, there was really only one difference between them. Enrico's eyes were a swirling gold-yellow color while Kyoya's were an icy gray. They also had the same personality. The two were cool, calm and collected, stubborn, reserved, a little prideful, nature lovers. Not to mention they were masters of martial arts.

"So where are the others?" Enrico asked. He and Kyoya were usually the first two to wake up in the morning, so they often didn't see the rest of their family.

The Hibaris were a beautiful family. Mr. Hibari was, in reality, a mafia man. But nobody knew that, aside from his wife and closest friends—meaning, his children had no idea. As far as the young ones knew, Kyoya was a police detective. (Strange, such contrasting jobs.) Mrs. Hibari was a pastry chef. They had four children: Enrico, age 12, Gavino, age nine, Angelo, age seven and Rosabella, their only daughter, age six.

"All still asleep. Except Angelo—you know, it's a Sunday," Kyoya said.

Of course. And speaking of which…

The air in the Luciano Catholic Church was thick with the congregation's silent prayers. Everyone was kneeling in their pews, hands folded and faces straight in concentration. Towards the front was Angelo Hibari, between Dante Fontanegra and Paprika Sinclair. Dante was a freshman in seminary school—college—and Paprika a senior in high school. But to the elementary school boy, they were his second family. In fact, he was with them more than his own siblings and parents. Dante and Paprika may have very well been the only comfort and normality in the mute boy's life.

0o.o0o.o0

"Milo! We're back!"

Milo Kakimoto looked up from his intense game of Monopoly Jr. His sisters ran off downstairs to greet their parents. Sure, he loved his little sisters, and he didn't mind babysitting them while his mom and dad ran errands. But now, he was FREE AT LAST!

He grabbed his cell phone and his skate board and on to the Gokudera mansion he went. Mariella Rokudo was waiting there outside for him.

"Come on in," she said.

When the two of them came upstairs into the game room, Marcello Gokudera, Adela Yamamoto and Cilantro Sinclair were sitting up waiting. They were playing cricket on the dartboard.

"Finally!" Cilantro said, and he stood up and hugged Milo. "You were gone _forever_!"

Milo rolled his eyes. "I know, I know. My parents got home an hour later than they said they would. But I hurried here as fast as I could."

"Well, no matter the excuse, you're still losing." Marcello sat in a shadowy corner, playing with one of the darts. The glare on his glasses and the expression on his face gave him an ominous aura.

The black-haired Kakimoto boy shot a sarcastic grin at Marcello. "Sounds like a challenge."

Adela took her last shot, wrote her score down on the whiteboard on the wall, and sat at the bar-height table at the back of the room with Mariella.

"Only if you say it is," Marcello replied. He got up and stood at the tape line on the floor, taking aim at the dartboard. All he needed was one last bullseye to win. He squinted through his pink-colored glasses, lined up the shot, and took it. Bullseye.

Milo felt nervous all the sudden. "S-say we start over?" Everyone laughed.

These five best friends hung out together very frequently, and were so close, they all felt like siblings—just from different parents. They knew each other better than anyone else did. Milo Kakimoto, Marcello Gokudera, Adela Yamamoto, Mariella Rokudo and Cilantro Sinclair had been together since even before birth, it seemed. Sometimes they would spend all day outside, playing organized sports, fishing, cloud-watching, anything. Sometimes they would spend all day inside, playing videogames or board games or darts. They could spend their time doing absolutely nothing and still be happy because they were in each others' company. Of course, no matter how close they were, they were still unique. Milo was a skater boy, who loved rock music and X-Games. Marcello was a musician; he was very talented with a guitar. Adela fit in with the preppy crowd—she was a cheerleader. Mariella liked ghost hunting and researching the paranormal. And Cilantro could do anything on a computer. Milo was the oldest child and only son of Chikusa and Marielle Kakimoto. He had two little sisters, Claudia and Arabella, four and two, respectively. Marcello had a younger, blind sister named Sabrina, and they were the children of Hayato and Luana Gokudera. Adela was the oldest daughter of Takeshi and Haru Yamamoto. She also had a little sister named Viviana. Mariella, the only daughter of Mukuro and Chrome Rokudo, had a little paraplegic brother, Martino. And Cilantro, child of Basil and Marisa Sinclair, was the younger of two kids. His older sister, Paprika, was engaged to Marcello's cousin. Milo, Marcello and Adela had recently turned 15, and Mariella and Cilantro weren't too far from reaching that same age.

Marcello walked up to the dartboard and plucked his dart from the center. "Why not?" He went back to the tape and shot three times. All three hit 20. "Locked 20," he said, and Milo shuddered grudgingly. Adela giggled.

0o.o0o.o0

Andre kept looking up at the clock. The pencil in his hand had been stuck in the same position for several minutes now. He sighed inwardly, in agony. He hated math. _Hated_ it with a passion. But, as much as he wished things were different, his parents would not let him leave the house until his homework was finished. His father was in the next room, and although the man was on the phone, Andre could tell he was still under his father's scrutinizing watch.

The boy took a deep breath and tried to picture the word problem in his head. _Arielle has $500 in her bank account, and she adds $20 every other day. Arielle's brother, Fernando, has $150 in his bank account and adds $50 every day. About how many days will it take for Fernando and Arielle to have the same account balance?_

_So the equation would be 10x + 500 = 50x + 150, to make their account balances equal. 350 = 40x… x = 8.75… so… nine days. _Andre wrote the number 9 big in the blank space below the question. He looked up again, then, at the clock. His thoughts strayed to what his friends could possibly be doing while he was stuck inside doing algebra. Glauco Bovino was surely working on his "Vongola Square through the Seasons" portrait series. Sabrina Gokudera was less predictable. She could be lazing around her house, bored, if nothing else. Neither of them would be doing stupid math.

Andre della Stella's eyes met his father, Futa. Futa looked back at him. Andre went back to his math. The boy silently questioned why he'd need this complicated of math in real life, anyway.

0o.o0o.o0

The platter in the center of Elda Sawada's bed was nearly empty, save a few nacho chip crumbs and one stray M&M. Leo had been very hungry when he came over—he had finished off the platter almost single-handedly.

"I hope winter break never ends," said Ilaria Sasagawa, Elda's cousin and one of her best friends. She looked out the window at the frost on the lawn of the Sawada mansion.

Leo Cavallone shrugged. "Meh."

Elda felt a little awkward around Leo. They had been going out for close to a year now, and hadn't had that bad of a relationship at all. But today seemed a little weird to Elda. It was almost like today had a different, strange feeling for her. Maybe it was the way her father acted this morning? Maybe it was the fact that this was the warmest winter she had ever seen? Maybe she felt odd because it was New Year's and her boyfriend was in her room?

The Sawadas and the Cavallones always knew their kids would get together. Elda and Leo were the same relative age, in the same grade. They played well together when they were younger. Not to mention Elda's first word was "Leo." Their relationship was a little obsessive. As much as Elda truly loved Leo, and Leo loved her back just as much, Elda felt that her father even controlled her romantic life. Tsuna Sawada was, after all, kind of controlling and possessive of his kids. His daughter had learned long ago that he was like this. Vittore figured this out, too, not too long ago. Innocenzo was still oblivious to the fact that practically every aspect of his life was manipulated by his parents. Elda decided to let her mother and father think she really was the sweet little angel they expected her to be while she snuck around doing rebellious things without their knowledge. Vittore went about his mischief more blatantly, which made Elda nervous sometimes.

An intense quietness filled the room. Whatever this foreign feeling was that Elda had, she sighed it away. Then she grabbed Leo's hand and squeezed it.

The cell phone in Ilaria's back pocket made an atrocious vibrating sound. She pulled it out and read the text message on the screen. "Uh-oh."

Leo and Elda both looked at her. "What?" they asked in unison.

Ilaria didn't answer them right away. She stood and, quivering, made her way to the door. "I have to go home," she said. "It's an emergency."

The boy in the room waved to her. "Bye." He was so anxious, it was rude. When Ilaria was out of sight, he kissed Elda on the cheek. "Now that we're alone…"

Elda scooted away from him a little. "TV?"

A disappointed scowl burst onto his expressive face. "Um… sure, I guess." What was _wrong_ with Elda Sawada today?

0o.o0o.o0

Ilaria only had to take a few steps to go from the Sawada mansion to the Sasagawa mansion. The Sawada, Gokudera, Yamamoto, Hibari, Bovino, Sasagawa and Rokudo mansions were all nestled in Vongola Castle. In reality, Vongola Castle was more like a very exclusive gated subdivision. It was just seven gigantic houses plus a square, a garden, a field and a big pool, secured all the way around by a tall stone fence.

"I'm home!" Ilaria shouted when she came in through the front door.

"In the nook," called her father, Ryohei, and mother, Hana.

Ilaria came the breakfast nook and examined her dad's worried expression; Hana's face seemed devoid of emotion, as it had been for as long as Ilaria could remember, but the teenage girl could still sense some panic and somberness in her parents. "What's going on?"

Her mother was totally silent.

"Kora's coming," Ryohei said.

Ilaria made a confused look. She and Kora had been long-distance best friends since they were very young. Ilaria was an only child, and so was Kora, but when they were together they were like long lost sisters. Every summer, Kora would stay at the Sasagawa mansion for a month—that's why Ilaria still kept that old bunk bed from when they were little in her room—and every other winter, during break, the whole Sasagawa family would go over to Kora's house for a week. Kora didn't live in Luciano. The only reason the two families knew each other was because, long ago, Ryohei was a very good friend of Kora's father.

"What?" Ilaria asked. "But… Kora's never been here during the winter. We weren't going to see each other this winter, anyway."

Ryohei sighed. "Well, something's going on at Kora's house right now—something not-so-good. Her parents are sending her over here so she doesn't have to be in the middle of it all."

"But…" Ilaria said, "School starts back up in two days! How long is she going to be here?"

"I don't know. She may end up having to go to school here for the first few weeks," Ryohei said.

"But…!"

Hana Sasagawa got up and walked out of the room.

"She's on a plane now, and will be in town in time for dinner tonight," Ryohei said. "I can't say much about why, exactly, she has to be away from home, or anything else, but the point is she'll have to stay here for a while."

Ilaria Sasagawa was shaking. "O-okay."

0o.o0o.o0

Ryohei, Hana, Ilaria and Kora were silent at the dinner table. Even Ilaria's chatty father, Ryohei, wasn't saying a word. Kora felt a little ashamed, like she was forcing herself onto her best friend's family, even though it was her parent's fault for having to send her away. She wasn't even eating much. She just picked around at the food on her plate with her fork.

"So, um…" Ilaria started and stopped. Kora looked awful. Her blonde hair was up in a very messy ponytail; her clothes didn't match—it looked like she just threw them on in a rush; and her usual smile? Gone, without a trace. Her copper-colored eyes were screaming, but her mouth didn't move. She kept her head down.

Kora pushed her chair out from under the table, picked her plate up, and asked to be excused. Hana let her go. The blonde girl rinsed her dish in the sink and retreated into the bedroom Ilaria was sharing with her.

Ilaria immediately left after her.

The girls' room was thick with darkness. Ilaria Sasagawa stepped in, shutting the door quietly behind. She stood in the middle of the room, staring at the bottom bunk. Kora was on the bed with her face buried in the pillow. Muffled sobbing sounds came from her dark form lying there.

Ilaria had always thought of Kora as a strong, empowered girl, smart, independent, beautiful. This had to be the first time since they were toddlers that Ilaria had seen her cry.

0o.o0o.o0

**Sorry this was so long. I'm trying to avoid too many chapters, since I expect this fic to be very lengthy and complicated. **

**Just a quick recap of the families:**

**Sawada: Tsunayoshi + Kyoko = daughter Elda, sons Vittore and Innocenzo  
Gokudera: Hayato + Luana (OC) = son Marcello, daughter Sabrina  
Yamamoto: Takeshi + Haru = daughters Adela and Viviana  
Hibari: Kyoya + Teresa (OC) = sons Enrico, Gavino and Angelo, daughter Rosabella  
Rokudo: Mukuro + Chrome = daughter Mariella, son Martino  
Sasagawa: Ryohei + Hana = daughter Ilaria  
Bovino: Lambo + I-Pin = son Glauco, daughter Carmela**

**Cavallone: Dino + Isabelle (OC) = son Leo, daughters Rena and Luca  
della Stella: Futa + Virginia (OC) = son Andre  
Fontanegra: ? + Bianchi = son Dante  
Sinclair: Basil + Marisa/Rosemary (OC) = daughter Paprika, son Cilantro  
Kakimoto: Chikusa + Marielle/M.M. = son Milo, daughters Claudia and Arabella  
Colonello + Lal Mirch = daughter Kora**

**Total: 27 kids (lol that was actually not planned)**


	3. Pulse

**Hello there again!**

**My internet went out on Friday so I had to post today. Hope that's ok.**

**This is going to get better, starting with this chapter. Just trust me (:**

**I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn! or anything related to it. Nor do I own Silly Putty.**

_Chapter Three: Pulse_

0o.o0o.o0

Dr. Luana Gokudera's cell phone rang at two a.m. the morning of January 2nd. She groaned and blindly grabbed it off the nightstand, her husband, Hayato, also waking up from the noise.

"H-hello…" the woman said. What the hell could have been so important that someone would call her at this ungodly hour?

"LUANA! Oh, my God! I'm so sorry, but I need your help!" Mrs. Chrome Rokudo's voice was frantic over the phone.

Okay, now Luana was awake. "Chrome—what's going on?" She and Hayato sat up at the same time and exchanged concerned looks.

"It's Mariella! Sh-she's—she's—she's unconscious!" Chrome was practically yelling into the receiver, and a freshly-awake Luana had to move the speaker away from her ear a couple of inches. Hayato Gokudera could hear the Rokudo woman loud and clear, too.

_Of course she's unconscious,_ Hayato thought. _It's two-fucking-o'clock in the morning. _

"Calm down, Chrome," Luana said. "Tell me what happened."

Chrome took a few deep breaths. "Mukuro-san and I heard her scream, and we ran into her room, and she was crying and in a lot of pain, and we tried to give her some pain medicine and calm her down, but she was hurting so bad nothing would work, and then she fainted, and now we don't know what to do, so we called you, because you're her—everyone's—doctor!" She took in more breaths.

It was times like this Luana really wished she hadn't gone to medical school. But at the same time, she was also greatly concerned for the health of her and Hayato's son's best friend. "Sounds serious," she said calmly. Deep down, she was freaking out almost as badly as Chrome was, but she was a doctor, and doctors were supposed to be cool under pressure. Chrome Rokudo was a psychologist, which was another medical profession, but hey, Mariella was her kid. If there was an exception to a doctor's level-headedness, having his or her child experience such pain and fall unconscious had to be it. "Bring her to my office immediately. I'll meet you there."

Chrome hung up, and Luana prepared herself for a very long night.

0o.o0o.o0

4:02 a.m., January 2nd. Phone calls were flooding into Luana's clinic, and her cell phone. More and more kids were piling into the doctor's office, all experiencing the same horrifying symptoms: a brief period of extremely intense pain all throughout the body, followed by fainting. Mariella Rokudo happened to be the first. She was laying in a hospital bed in a coma, hooked up to breathing machines, EKG's, everything, and she wasn't the only one. Ilaria Sasagawa and her friend, Kora; Luana's son, Marcello; Milo Kakimoto; Adela Yamamoto; Paprika Sinclair; Dante Fontanegra; Elda Sawada—these kids were comatose now. Andre della Stella had just arrived, and he was writhing and wailing, and Glauco Bovino was also feeling the pain and on his way to the clinic.

Several of the parents were in the clinic, scrambling about, trying to help in any way they possibly could. Anyone with medical experience was monitoring the unconscious children and fruitlessly attempting to console Andre. Even people without medical experience were doing this, too. A few stuck around to answer phones and to watch the kids that were at the clinic but not experiencing illness or pain—the siblings of the unconscious children.

His parents were at his side when Andre passed out. They were grieving, but they couldn't wait for Glauco to come in and resume the pattern, because the silence in the clinic at this time was just plain dreadful.

0o.o0o.o0

9:28 a.m. It had been over three hours since Glauco slipped into a coma with all the other kids.

Luana and her nurses, both professional and makeshift, were running between taking care of their patients and trying to figure out what had happened to them. In the back office, medical textbooks and files and papers were strewn about atop the tables and desks and on the floor. Websites and documents occupied the three desktop computers and the laptop. The dry-erase board on the wall was written on all over. Luana sat on the floor in the middle of the backroom, her body exhausted and her mind buried in the crisis before her. She was taking a quick recouping break before she'd have to work more on these cases. Nothing pointed in any particular direction! All information led to a dead end! It was quite unlike anything she had seen before. She had performed blood tests, CAT scans, urine tests, spinal taps, X-rays, anything and everything she could think of.

She felt like she was losing herself. She felt like she was losing the kids.

0o.o0o.o0

10:44 a.m.

It was Tsunayoshi Sawada's turn to look after all the kids in the waiting room. The intensity kept him in agony. Martino Rokudo occupied himself with his favorite doll, a marionette he inherited from Mariella when he was little, and had named Sole. Sole ruled Martino's life. He was a sweet boy, precocious. He was bound to a wheelchair, but that didn't matter to him or anyone else, really. But he was dangerously obsessed with his toy. He swore it talked to him, moved all alone, had a mind of its own. At this troubling time, it brought him comfort. And comfort was the best thing anyone could wish upon him now. Sabrina Gokudera had been known to fidget and play around with things; her shaking hands now worked vigorously at some Silly Putty. Vittore and Innocenzo played handheld videogames. Carmela Bovino and the Kakimoto girls slept. Viviana Yamamoto and Cilantro Sinclair read books.

The man sat there for half an hour, watching the children fret and wait for news about their older siblings.

"…Mr. Sawada?"

He turned to his left and found a pair of bright green eyes blinking up at him. Carmela was awake now. Tsuna looked her right in the face.

"Mr. Sawada," she said, "Is Glauco going to be okay?"

Tsuna felt awful. How could he tell an eight-year-old girl about what was going on? When he considered the painfully curious look on her face, he got a stabbing feeling in his gut. Eight-year-olds should be worried about cleaning their rooms and figuring out what to get friends for their birthday parties, not whether or not their older brothers would _live_.

Tsuna sighed and pet her hair. "I don't know, Carmela," he said in as gentle a voice as he could. "I don't know."

0o.o0o.o0

11:16 a.m. Hayato Gokudera had news. Big news.

He had started thinking about all the patients and what they had in common. Age, gender, general health. So far, it all seemed random, until now.

He literally ran into the backroom, where he found his wife and some of her workers, busy as bees. "Luana," he said.

She turned and blinked at him. She looked fried and insane. "What?"

Hayato came up close to her, all eyes in the room on him. "All the patients… they're from their mothers' first pregnancies."

Everyone gasped. They thought about it for a second, and found Hayato was right. Mariella, Dante, Paprika, Marcello, Adela, Glauco, Andre, Ilaria, Kora, Milo and Elda were all the children of their respective mothers' first pregnancies. One could argue that they were this way because they were the oldest, but that would lead to contemplating Leo Cavallone and Enrico Hibari. They were the oldest children in their families, too, but both their mothers had miscarried once before them.

"Hayato… Hayato, that's amazing!" Luana was ecstatic. Finally, something solid. The others in the room applauded him.

0o.o0o.o0

3:37 p.m. Things hit a wall. Parents worked in shifts in the lab, the backroom, the clinic and the waiting room. But with all the activity, it was quiet and still there.

Mukuro and Chrome Rokudo sat on either side of their daughter's hospital bed. They were watching her intently. Mariella's sleeping and inactive face seemed so tragically beautiful to the couple. Mariella was the spitting image of her mother, and seeing her like this put Chrome on the brink of tears. Mukuro held his daughter's hand and stared at the heart monitor. This girl was going to live, dammit. All the children were. He would make sure of it personally if he had to.

The couple sat with their heads low in a gloomy fog. Everything was happening, nothing was happening. They hated it. The two of them were lulled by the _beep, beep, beep_ of the EKG.

Suddenly, the _beep_ing stopped. Mukuro and Chrome looked up at each other, eyes wide. They glanced over at the screen to find a single, continuing flat line. They gasped.

_Beep._

Mr. Rokudo sighed in relief, but his muscles were still taut. He squeezed his daughter's hand. Mrs. Rokudo dug her face into her arms, and burst into tears. The _beep_ing got going again, and the line wasn't flat anymore. But now their fear was more real than ever.

0o.o0o.o0

10:27 p.m., January 2nd. The children in the waiting room were asleep. The comatose children were comatose. The adults were so tired; they were ready to pass out, themselves.

Viviana Yamamoto's eyes shot open. She could literally hear her heart beating—pounding—and she found it hard to breathe. She whipped the blanket off of her body and, carefully, as not to disturb the other kids in the room, she stumbled into the backroom where the parents were discussing today's victories, which were very few, and defeats, which were far too many.

She knocked desperately on the door and would have fallen flat on the floor were it not for her father standing right inside to catch her.

Viviana wrapped her arms tight around Takeshi's waist. "Dad," she choked out, "I don't feel so good."


End file.
